Hot Topics:

Most Commented

M. Carroll: Perhaps life in prison is worse than the death penalty

By Meredith C. CarrollThe Denver Post

Posted:
04/05/2013 12:01:00 AM MDT

George Brauchler, center, district attorney in Colorado's 18th Judical District, arrives at the courtroom for a hearing on Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes in the Arapahoe County Justice Center on April 1. (Doug Pensinger, Getty Images)

Violent, scary and suspenseful movies aren't my thing. It's not so much the aggression and gore that get my pulse racing to a miserable degree so much as it's the moments immediately preceding them. The anticipation of ghastly things to come always guts me more than actual guts.

Despite the fact that I am soundly opposed to the death penalty, I was nevertheless remarkably satisfied on Monday when it was revealed as the punishment being sought against accused Aurora theater shooter James Holmes.

When Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler announced steadily, "It is my determination and my intention that, in this case, for James Eagan Holmes, justice is death," I felt relief wash over me. While I don't actually believe Holmes will end up dying as a result of lethal injection or some other legally fatal means, the thought of him dreading the ultimate sentence seems wickedly appropriate and makes my lips form into an evil smile similar to the one he offered in his first mug shot as well as each of his subsequent police photos.

I distinctly remember sitting in Mr. Coffino's fifth-period math class when news broke of the Challenger blowing up in 1986, as well as my exact whereabouts during each of the World Trade Center bombings.

Advertisement

More recent, I vividly recall my dad telling me at 5 a.m. on July 20, 2012, as we loaded up the car for him to drive my family to the airport in New York, that there had been a horrific shooting at a movie theater outside of Denver just a few hours earlier. When we arrived back at DIA and were in our car heading home, we heard Holmes' dad had just landed in Colorado, too.

The three-hour drive west on Interstate 70 was spent listening to the TV cable news channels on satellite radio, with timelines unfolding and witness statements emerging about how each minute inside the theater seemed more like an entire year. The theatergoers panicked with justifiable terror for their own lives as well as for those of the young children, friends, spouses and other loved ones attending a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises."

Eight minutes was the amount of time that lapsed between when Holmes allegedly started shooting until police detained him outside of the theater. With the death toll at 12 and the number of people injured at 58, it only seems fair that each of those minutes as they were experienced by the victims — all 70 of them — should translate into the actual years — 560 of them — that Holmes should rot in jail worrying about whether his actions will directly lead to his own demise.

Short of 560 years, however, it's still comforting to think of Holmes cowering with life-and-death anxiety each and every day until there's a decision in his case, which could take several decades to resolve now that it's a death penalty case. Hopefully the survivors' and victims' families will have the satisfaction of knowing he'll never taste even a lick of freedom again either away.

An eye for an eye is hardly the answer to murder. The death penalty is not only an anachronistic solution in 2013 but is also unjustly inhumane and unfairly and unevenly distributed. How is it that the same crime committed in different states (or even in the same state) could yield life for one and death for another, not to mention how it's been tragically handed to and enacted on those later found innocent?

But it's a fate worse than death, I believe, to wish on Holmes the same fear he struck in the hearts of those in the theater that night last July. And it's one that just might finally wipe that horrid smirk from his face.

Meredith C. Carroll of Aspen writes a weekly column. Contact her at meredithccarroll@ hotmail.com or on Twitter @mccarroll.

Lockheed says object part of 'sensor technology' testing that ended ThursdayWhat the heck is that thing? It's fair to assume that question was on the minds of many people who traveled along Colo. 128 south of Boulder this week if they happened to catch a glimpse of what appeared to be a large, silver projectile perched alongside the highway and pointed north toward town.

PARIS (AP) — Bye, New York! Ciao, Milan! Bonjour, Paris! The world's largest traveling circus of fashion editors, models, buyers and journalists has descended on the French capital, clutching their metro maps and city guides, to cap the ready-to-wear fashion season. Full Story